I pretty much second Mumble's reply and also encourage you to search the forums for whatever catches your interest at the moment. Even searches for something as simple as Korx or Yor could lead you to threads that will answer a question you couldn't quite ask or give you an idea that sends you straight back to the game.

*Lots* of folks have spent *far too much time* typing around here...

Building on those general tips:

1) Maintaining money: I'd say it's crucial to develop your homeworld early in the game, so keep that one building at full speed. In a large galaxy you'll typically colonize several other planets and it's there that you need to be careful:
- Don't try to colonize too many planets; take the high quality ones and don't be afraid to leave the low quality ones in the same star system for the AI. Once your high quality planet is fully populated, you shouldn't have too much trouble influencing the low quality neighbour planets. Once your influence is strong enough, they will flip to your ownership anyway while the AI has taken the costs to develop those planets.

- Don't build too much on those planets until the population has grown enough and the tax income can support some maintenance costs.

2) What to build on planets: that strongly depends on the strategy you want to take (do you want to focus on cash , buying techs and ships? do you want to research, selling techs for cash? do you want to pull ahead in production to build a strong military?)

It's a good practice to dedicate some planets to a specific goal: e.g. 1 planet with mostly labs so you get the maximum advantage out of adding a "technology capital" later on, 1 planet with quite a few factories so you get the most out of adding a "manufacturing capital" later on, some planets dedicated to econ buildings to get your cash flow in the green.

At each point in time you should ask yourself: what do I require the most now (research, production, cash, ...) and depending on that decide what you will research and build. Early on your research should be focused on the cheap techs that are quickly researched (preferably only a few turns) and that give you some bonus to ship speed (for faster colonization), production, research, income, ... I also suggest to research tech capital and econ capital early in the game. Next on the list is going for a bigger hull size (small or medium) and then 1 branch of weapons (preferably several steps in a row so you get access to reasonably powerful weapons that make a difference) and some miniaturization. Don't wait too long with diplomatic techs, as that gives you access to the econ capital, gives your population morale and/or income boosts + it gets you more when you trade techs with the AI. Plus better diplomacy improves your relations with the AI.

As rubbergovernment said, don't let the AI pull ahead in military rating... Typically I keep an eye on the AI's military ratings in the graph centrally below on the screen; as soon as I see one AI taking off I build a few small or medium hulls with the best weapons I have at that time, in order to stay in the first place of military rating.

3) Sliders: the overall slider always at 100% unless you really, really have a cash problem (lower than 100% means you're slowing down your research and production).
For the split between research, social production, military production: until you advance your playing style you can keep them on the default 33% each unless you urgently need to advance faster in 1 of those 3 categories. Also, toggling the research slider can gain you some weeks in research time so it's often worth playing around with that slider when you're close to completing research for a certain tech.

4) Ships to build: first a few colony ships to grab those nice high quality planets before the AI does. Then a few constructors to take resources (those green, red, purple, yellow, cyan, ... crystals - as those give you a nice overall boost in a specific category, not to be underestimated). Next either some military ships to stay ahead of the AI or a few freighters to increase your income and improve relations with some AI's. Especially for the Korx income from freighters is important as they get bonuses on that income.

5) I would suggest you start with 1 race and build a strategy around their strenghts (e.g. trade income for the Korx). Once you feel comfortable on easy or normal difficulty, you can change to a different race, apply the general principles you learned using the first race and tailor your approach to their strengths. It's been too long since I played so I don't feel well-placed to give you race-specific tips but start from the race's strengths (what bonuses do they get, what is their unique super ability?) to know what you should focus on.

As everyone else says, feel free to ask more specific questions to solve some painpoints, do you have certain areas where you can't keep up with the AI, etc?

This is another good example of why 'advice' needs to follow from a player's goals. That "eventually" is only if you're going for a conquest win. If, say, you want an Alliance win as Thalans, you're much better off hoarding the diplo techs (except Alliances itself, of course). The edge those stacked bonuses give will help you overcome the basic diplo weakness of the Thalans.

/edit that Is if he is even still checking this thread/forum.

First: What do those accronyms stand for?

Second: I don't know about you, but I don't like to trade Master Trade before I have the Galactic Bazaar.  To me, trading the highest level techs risks losing valuable achievements and such.  Also, why would I wanna give the AI an equal oppurtunity?

Oh..you were helping? False info does not equal help, though your intentions are good.

But when given such a broad question there was little to do but give a broad response. There are far too many facets to this game to narrow down any one answer that would help. What works for a ZYW fails in a tech victory, and what works well for a scoremongering game is different for an alliance victory. Specifics are needed.

First - ZYW = See above, SCC = Spin Control Center......

Second - I dont build the Bazaar, or at least dont need to anyway...the optimum scoring path does not require it.

Well ideally you want them to be stronger not equal! Not sure how long you have been playing, based on your forum account, not long, so you may not be aware of many of the stratagies out there, but you want the Suicidal AI's to be as strong as possible.

But the short answer is...for score.

Never said he would, i was just making my point, which seems lost on you.

Enjoy your games.

I'm new to the game but I experience the opposite of the OP and I feel that there's one overal strategy, that always works (on tough difficulty, DL):

1 early phase

Turn on the colored territiories on the minimap end scout the stars with the ships you start with for habitable planets. If you don't have scouts build one or two.

Maximize research and spending to 100% and focus propulsion until you have impulse drive. Meanwhile keep your approval at exactly 100%, so you may have to lower taxes occasionally. Stop all research spending once you got the impulse tech.

When you find a habitable planet rush buy a colony ship specifically designed for the target range. You can spend all your treasury on colony ships.

2 development phase

Try to get in contact with all the alien races and start tech brokering. Some races may not even have ion drives yet. Broker well and you can continue to keep up with all the latest techs at zero research for years (this is easy for the humans).

In the mean time gradually build up markets in large colonies starting with a few fabs to get the markets up faster.

Keep checking for the planetary invasion tech.

3 conquering phase

If an alien invents planetary invasion. Build up your military fast.

If you have a large population and economy, before anyone has planetary invasion, start building facilities and do some research yourself, starting with a couple of cheaper improvement and military techs and then the planetary invasion line once you can research each one tech in a couple of weeks.

Have a few dedicated planets with starports to build all the armed ships. Engines aren't necessary, they'll fly on the tech bonus moves. Make some fleets (logistics) and attack the weakest enemy. You should be winning your battles and if not, research more weapons, logistics, hulls first.

Taxes can be increased drastically.

Once you can build advanced troop modules, sent 2000 troops per transport after the armed ships to those planets.

Rinse and repeat for the next weakest race in line.

I think what was hardest for me to grasp at first is that economy doesn't work anything like research and industry.  You don't build money factories or anything logical like that.  There no gold mining or anything along those lines either.

Most beginners in strategy games want to turtle into a small area thats easy to manage but Galciv heavily penalizes you if you want to turtle.  The way population and taxes works means you need to expand to compete.   There are ways to turtle still but I think they are harder to do as a newbie.

Basically do what others have said.  Don't try to build onto every tile just because you can.  Even if you expand very slowly you can easily make way more buildings than you can afford.

I haven't been playing very long but it feels alot like Civ in space, which is good for me because I like Civ. Don't start out playing huge maps, start with small or medium ones. Take all the planets you can afford, then build up your economy. City specialization is important in civ, and it seems to be working for me so far. I usually specialize my homeworld into a money planet. Only thing I'm not sure of is whether tile bonuses are applied before or after planetary and civ wide multipliers.

The easiest victory condition to meet is diplomatic. Turn it off if it becomes too easy to get and focus on winning another way until you can win consistently any way you choose. Then turn up the difficulty a notch.